3 Ways to leverage advertising on the Apple Watch

The Apple Watch release date has arrived and if you are lucky enough to have one you can already pull up some sweet advertising. Analyst firm Juniper Research predicted that wearable spending would hit $1.4 billion in 2013 and will reach a staggering $19.0 billion by 2018.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the budget to create an Apple Watch enabled application though, you can advertise in other ways. Here’s a list of 3 ways that you can advertise on that beautiful piece of wrist candy without hiring an app dev company.

1. Branded apps. British Airways has already created an app for all your travel needs. I guess there is a whole “advertising versus utility” argument there but early adopters like British Airways, the Guardian and BMW see the product as a chance to take personalization to the next level. Years of mobile lessons has taught them that wearables need to serve people with helpful, short interactions instead of blasting them with ads.

British Airway’s App

2. Passbook objects. You can work with a company like Vibes to send a coupon to the Passbook application that is native to the watch. Passbook objects can be geo-enabled to alert a user when they are within 100 meters of a latitude or longitude OR within 30 feet of a bluetooth beacon. You can also use the Passbook object for persistent messaging that would remind the wearer of current or new deals.

Artist rendition of Passbook App ad unit

3. Geo enabled apps. Pandora and Spotify come to mind first. These are the apps that I would use. Because the medium itself is only audio – there will be no special way to develop an ad.

The Apple Watch represents a much hyped product of the wearables trend that will likely only reach innovators and early adopters. Luxury and aspirational brands that attract and play well with these segments will prosper by offering interactive opportunities that blend both utility and branding. However as the wearables trend gains mass adoption over the future, mainstream brands should capitalize and strategize on opportunities for seamless integration